The Podcast Show in London gets underway

Where’s that data come from? SVP of Edison Research Tom Webster tells us to check the sources, in this week’s Sounds Profitable with Libsyn’s Advertisecast.

• The Podcast Show has started, in Islington, London. Event organisers tell Podnews they’re expecting 2,400 visitors today and again tomorrow; the show has had high-profile advertising on national radio.

  • The first podcast conference in the city was PodcastCon, in September 2005. Podnews’s Editor, James Cridland, has a good reason to remember.

• At The Podcast Show, Norwegian startup Nomono announced the release of its Nomono Sound Capsule, a wifi-enabled recorder with a spatial microphone array, and a cloud-based recording tool.

• Also at The Podcast Show, Sony Music Entertainment announced that Kermode and Mayo’s Take had become the most popular Apple Podcasts Subscription in the UK; and the company has just announced The Binge, a new podcast subscription channel with full seasons of shows, to launch June 6.

• One of the biggest podcasts in the world, WTF with Marc Maron has signed with Acast. The thirteen-year-old show claims 55 million listens per year, primarily in North America, and is the 25th most popular show in the US according to Edison Podcast Metrics. It will also use Acast+, the company’s paid subscriptions product. It was with SXM Media, and hosted by Omny Studio.

• Spotify is to bring back political advertising on the platform. It was suspended in early 2020. In the 2019-2020 election cycle, total political advertising spending reached $8.5 billion across TV, radio and digital media. The company recently drew ire from podcasters for adding ads for alcohol on podcast pages after a technical error, costing them a major advertiser.

• The RØDECaster Pro II has been launched. It goes on sale in twenty days; the product includes a number of improvements to the original podcast mixer.

• Social podcasting app Reason has changed its name to Podvine, and completed a £150,000 fundraise (US$187,000). It has 243 podcasts on its platform currently, generating 500,000 downloads.

• Buzzsprout has launched Buzzsprout Ads in beta. The system automatically finds the right place for a midroll ad, and pays 1.4 cents (USD) per download. You can check eligibility in your dashboard. The official launch is next week.

• Got a great true crime story? CBC Podcasts is looking for unique and compelling cases for the next season of Uncover, their true crime podcast.

Tips and tricks

• Blubrry highlights a way of Stalking Your Prospective Audience Without Being Creepy

• 9 Simple Ways to Generate New Ideas When Creatively Stuck - Mpumelelo Malumo suggests in We Edit Podcasts that we watch TV, or socialise. (Going for a walk helps, too).

Podcast News - with Lemonada Media

From Lemonada Media: Jaime Primak Sullivan wants to tawk, not talk. The star behind the Cawfee Tawk Facebook series is back for a new season of her hit Lemonada show, Let’s Tawk. Jaime will share her unfiltered thinking on parenting, marriage, work, relationships, and the constant evolution of culture and its role in shaping our everyday lives.

Fresh Air with Terry Gross has won the Peabody Institutional Award. She was presented the award by Stephen Colbert. The show started in 1975, and is one of NPR’s highest-performing podcasts.

Drive is a Spotify Original launched recently - featuring Ford CEO Jim Farley, this isn’t actually a Ford podcast: just a set of interviews about what drives people. From Magnificent Noise, the Los Angeles Times has listened and likes it.